Protocol Magi :ORIGIN / Episode 6

The Yellow Warrior is the sixth episode of Protocol Magi :ORIGIN.

Characters

 * Mashiro Mitsu
 * Nakajima Shiori / Aubade
 * Oshiro Hanako / Hyacinth
 * Abe Kira / Solstice
 * Hikawa Naomi / Numina
 * Aoyama Anna / ??
 * Minami Mio

Episode
Aubade had no idea how the girl managed to get to so many fights all over Hanabi. Mitsu lived on the other side of the city for heaven’s sake! But yet here the Magi maniac was, again. Her annoyance must have shown clear as day on her face, as Solstice started laughing at one glance of it. “Solstice. Shut up,” the blue leader grumbled – which, of course, only got said Magi to laugh even harder.

Mitsu was ecstatic, much like every time she got close to the Magical Girls: What was there not to love about getting to spend time near them? Well, the peril of the fight was a downside, but that was a minuscule detail in comparison to the gigantic plus of being near the Magical Girls. Then again, that could easily be solved, if said spending time near the Magical Girls actually included being one herself. But still, spending time near the Magical Girls was the second best thing to actually being one.

She was too entranced by the way the four coloured (or three, mostly; she still didn’t really like Aubade’s arrogance) protectors moving around the Shade with grace to wear it down to the point where the Shade could be purified to notice that the Shade had noticed her. “…You’ve got to be kidding,” Aubade mumbled, prompting another bout to laughter to bubble out of the orange Magi. “For once, can’t she realize that she should at least be careful?”

The blue Magi formed a blue ripple around her right hand, and flicked it to the side, causing the sparkling force field to fly in Mitsu’s direction, stopping just in time to prevent a suction-cupped tentacle from squashing the hopeless maniac. “Numina!” Aubade called, and the green Magi kicked away from the Shade, landing beside Mitsu.

“Hi. I’m sorry,” the green Magi said and picked up the fangirl, who let out a yelp and then a shriek as Numina jumped, boosted by the green sparkles guiding the winds around her. Numina put her down by a fountain 10 minutes worth of running from the fight, and with an apology, Numina vanished back towards the fight once more.

“B-B-B-BUT-…”

On the contrary to Mitsu’s foolishness to not find a place to hide during the fight, there were two others who actually had done what the Magi wanted civilians to do. Aoyama Anna and Minami Mio had been on a girls’ day out in town, just two friends hanging out (and, as much as Anna liked to deny it, Mio had gotten her to try some outfit that she, which she liked even more to deny, actually had liked a lot). They had been walking out of one of the malls, when a gigantic octopus had appeared out of nowhere. The two had rushed back into the mall searching for shelter, until they heard the telltale noises from the fight quiet down. “Well,” Anna said, looking at the remnants of the fight – a couple of cracked parts in the pavement, but other than that, everything was in a pretty good condition. “That happened.” “It didn’t take too long, though?” Mio replied. “When we were with the others, it took longer.” “Well, Grumpy was alone then, so maybe there wasn’t only one of them today?” Anna suggested. “But it’s a good thing that it ends quickly.” “Yeah,” Mio replied with a smile.

“HEY!!” A voice interrupted Anna from responding. “ANNA! KIRA! DID YOU SEE THE FIGHT?!” They turned around. “Hey,” Anna greeted. “What’s the maniac doing here?” “I’m not a maniac!” “You just yelled ‘did you see the fight’ as if it was the best thing ever,” Anna grinned. “You’re a maniac.”

“..Fair enough,” Mitsu replied, whipping out a notebook. “But did you see the end of the fight? I couldn’t see it, so I’m relying on you! Who finished the Shade?” “What is this, an interview?” “YES!”

“How come you did not see the end of the fight?” Mio asked. “Shouldn’t it be the start you usually miss?” “…” Mitsu mumbled something unintelligible. “…Excuse me?” Mio asked, having not been able to hear it. “Aubade ordered Numina to get me away from witnessing the fight,” Mitsu grumbled. “I swear, she has it out for me! I took the bus back.” She seemed to remember that she had asked a question. “What finisher was used?” “I ‘unno’.” Anna replied, shrugging, conveying just how little it mattered to her. “We weren’t outside.”

“WHAAAT?!” Mitsu sunk down to her knees. “I can’t believe this…” she sulked. “Uhm, Mitsu..?” Mio asked. “I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intentio-EEK!” Mitsu had bounced up, came to stand too close to Mio for the younger’s comfort, and leaned forward. “…Are you Numina?” “..What?” “You apologize a lot. She apologizes a lot. Are you Numina?” Mitsu let out a strangled sound as Anna grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the mildly terrified girl.

“Mitsu.” Anna didn’t bother elaborating. “Personal. Space. We have talked about this.” “…but..?” “Mio was with me the entire time,” Anna stated. “Thus, she could not be Numina, or any of them.” “…I guess,” Mitsu mumbled. “Thanks anyway.” She left towards the bus station.

“Well,” Anna said, repeating the words from earlier. “That happened.” She turned to look at the shorter girl. “Are you OK?” “Yeah,” Mio nodded. “She just surprised me, is all.” “Good,” Anna replied. “What do you want to do now? Ice cream? I could go for an ice cream.” Mio smiled brightly, “okay.”

Five minutes later, the pair sat at their favourite outside ice cream parlour, having paid for their confectionaries. “Since when did our lives get this crazy?” Anna asked, taking a spoonful out of her banana split. “Mitsu, our outings with our friends getting crashed by monsters, Mitsu, the Magical girls, Mitsu.” “You said ‘Mitsu’ three times,” Mio replied, her strawberry and chocolate cone in hand. “Exactly,” Anna replied. “Our days would be a lot calmer if she didn’t exist,” she grinned. “Although calm isn’t always to prefer. Every group of friends needs their resident maniac.” Mio laughed, and Anna joined in, the joyful sounds chiming in the area.

Only, of course, to turn to irritation when a seagull appeared out of nowhere, landed on Anna’s hands, nabbed a mouthfuls of bananas and knocked the rest of the treat to the ground as it took off once more. “HEY!” Anna yelled. “GET BACK HERE YOU FILTHY BIRD!” Predictably, no such thing happened. The seagull was perfectly happy not returning to the upset girl.

A while later – when the rest of the strawberry and chocolate ice cream had been devoured by the pair of them and they had headed through a few more stores – they started to head back to the bus stop, and decided to take the shortcut through the park. This proved to be a bad idea, as only a few steps into it, Anna’s foot caught onto a protruding root, and fell face first into the ground. “OW!” she exclaimed, sitting up and rubbing her nose. “Since when are there roots sticking up like this?!” “Are you okay, Anna..?”

Only minutes after that incident, a Frisbee suddenly appeared over a couple of bushes. As if fate had some sort of grudge against Anna, it hit her in the back of her head. “Ow! What the-…” “Are you alright?!”

After that, the elder of the two was understandably on edge. Her luck was really absent today, for some reason. “I can’t believe it,” she mumbled. “Can you believe today?” she asked. They had made it to the plaza only a couple of metres away from where the bus stop they were going to. “…Mio?” The younger girl didn’t reply. She merely stared ahead with big eyes, pointing with a trembling finger.

“Oh, for the-…” Anna mumbled when she turned to look at what had caused Mio’s fear. The events of the day had really gotten her exasperation levels to rise through the roof, and when she now found herself looking at a giant monster. “As if my day needed to get weirder,” she muttered. “This is so not my day.”

The giant heel-shaped monster with shoelace for arms (something that even Anna could say was a fashion disaster if there ever was one), started advancing towards the pair. “…Great.” Anna drawled, before grabbing Mio’s hand. “Come on! Let’s run!” They got all of three metres, before Anna felt Mio push her side – causing the both of them to fall in different directions but both narrowly avoiding getting turned to mush. “We have to split up!” Anna called as she rose up, something that Mio mirrored. “We can’t do much, we just have to stay safe until the magical girls show up!” Anna registered Mio nodding, before they each ran off in a direction. It didn’t take long for Anna to realize that the Shade hadn’t followed her but rather her friend. Terror gripped Anna’s heart. She couldn’t stand by and do nothing if the Shade targeted Mio. So, she did something the Magi would very well discourage; She took a page out of Mitsu’s book, and yelled, “HEY! UGLY!”, and threw a rock at it. Almost comically, it bounced off harmlessly. The Shade turned around however, and charged at Anna, aiming to swat her into one of the nearby buildings. Once within striking range, the Shade’s shoelace arms came at Anna from the right, and Anna’s eyes widened in fear. No matter how fast she was, there was no way she would be able to avoid that.

Only, as it turned out, she did not need to. Right before she was about to get hit, a yellow lightning bolt appeared from the sky, hitting Anna dead on, and pushed the Shade’s attack back.

When the light faded, a yellow-clad Magi stood where Anna previously stood. “…Right. This is a dream. A weird dream. I must be flipping dreaming. There is no other way. Why am I even having this dream? This is Mitsu’s wish! Not mine!”

The Shade started stalking towards the unknowing Magi, who still had yet to stop speaking about why this couldn’t be real.

“I mean, in what way did I ask for this?! I never did!” The Shade swung at her, and she, out of pure luck, turned around just in time to see it, and only prepare for impact. But that last second, turned out to be more than just that, as a yellow glow emanated from her, and the movement of the Shade and her surroundings seemed to slow down. “…What?” the yellow Magi mumbled. “What just..?”

She looked at her hands. She looked at the Shade and the large knots that served as arms and in this case, instruments for punching stuff with. She looked at her surroundings, and her mind wandered back to the fight she had witnessed with her friends between the blue girl who Mitsu later referred to as Aubade, and the giant Car-like monster. She looked at her hands once more, and grinned, cracking her knuckles. She pulled her arm back in a fist, and-…

The yellow glow around her faded as she was hit square in the face and was sent hurling into a tree.

The Magi groaned, rose up from the ground, and rolled her right shoulder to ease a bit of tension, before she stared down at the monster. “This is crazy and I will definitely regret this later on, but you are so asking for it.” She crouched down, and placed her right hand to the ground, before she moved her feet.

Once more, she miscalculated her new abilities; she sped at the Shade faster than she had planned, but it turned out to be pretty effective either way as she crashed, head first, into the Shade, knocking it back several metres.

The Magi landed on her backside when she bounced back from the collision, rubbing her forehead. “How in the world..?” She rose up again, right in time as the Shade regained its balance as well. “…Right,” the Magi mumbled. “That.”

She cautiously took a step back, as if testing the ground. “…okay so I don’t go shooting off now? Well, that’s good I gueeEEEESSS!!”

She had taken another step, and went shooting in the direction of a tree – which she collided with rather unceremoniously. Peeking out through the door of the building she had taken cover in, Mio looked at where her friend-turned-Magi was splayed, head to the ground, against the tree. “Anna!” Mio exclaimed. “Are you alright?!” The Magi looked in her direction, gave her a thumbs up, but at the same time, her face conveyed the exact feelings the Magi had at the moment.

Unfortunately, Mio’s call had attracted the attention of the Shade, and it had now turned towards the building, advancing forward at a steady pace. The Magi noticed this sudden change in focus, and followed the direction where it was going with her gaze, and it horrified her. “Mio!” she yelled, got to her feet faster than she thought possible, and sprinted in their direction to intercept the shoe-lace’s attack. Skidding to a stop, she rose her arms over her head, and blocked the attack only centimetres from it’s target that had been the wall.

“…Back… off…” the yellow Magi grumbled, and twisted her grip on the appendage of the Shade. Planting her feet steadily on the ground, she pulled at the Shade, and threw it up into the air.

When it landed after having reached a height that rivalled the skyscrapers around the fight, the yellow Magi stared in shock. “Whoa.” She looked back to her hands. “…I did that?” Looking back up, she noticed that the Shade was struggling to rise. She furrowed her brow, trying to remember what had happened during the one fight she had witnessed. “Right,” she thought, ''“Aubade killed it with that attack. Maybe I could do the same?”''

She walked over (she didn’t want to run out of fear of shooting off like a lightning bolt again) to the Shade. She rose her right arm, and yellow light started swirling around it. “Okay, that is cool,” she admitted, before focusing at the Shade again. “Aubade, Cleansing.” The yellow light condensed at her palm, making it emit a warm glow. Then, it vanished.

The Magi blinked. “What? …but… but…” She turned her palm around, and there was no trace of the light that had been there. “Why can’t this work for me?! Come on!” She only barely managed to avoid getting turned to mashed Magi when the Shade’s shoe lace arms came down at the ground right where she had been moments before, but it appeared the Shade knew what it was doing this time – or at least that the Magi did not know what she was doing – as it then swept with the appendages horizontally towards her.

Out of pure reflex, she attempted to jump over it, but was only a tad late, as her right foot caught on the limb of the Shade, and she tumbled to the ground. The Shade once more advanced at her, and attacked. Mirroring it, the Magi charged at it, pulled back her arm, and yelled something unintelligible. That yellow glow surrounded her once more, and the surrounding area once more seemed to slow down. In rapid succession, the Magi landed several punches and kicks at various parts of the Shade, and then placed her palms at the center of the Shade. The yellow glow seemed to get sucked into the Shade, before emerging at the back of it, pulling a black pearl with it. The Magi straightened up as the remnants of the Shade fell to the side, and the yellow glow vanished, causing the pearl to crackle to dust.

“…Well,” Solstice said. “This is a development.” “No kidding,” Hyacinth added. “Since when was there another Magi?” Numina asked. “At least it’s not bad news.” Aubade replied. “Do you think she’s experienced?” Numina asked. “Maybe. Let’s find out.” Aubade jumped down from the roof they were standing on, towards the yellow Magi, landing only meters before her. The other three followed.

The yellow Magi stared at them as if they had two heads each. “…What the fudge is going on here..?” she asked. Kira leaned towards Numina, mumbling “Yeah, not experienced.” This earned her a swift punch from the redhead of the group. “Oow!” the orange Magi complained. “Don’t do that!” “Then don’t be a jerk,” Hyacinth countered.

“Wha-..?” the yellow Magi began. These people… They reminded her of some others she knew.

“Um..?” Another voice cut in. “…what is happening?” The five Magi turned to look, and came upon the sight of a girl they all knew very well; Mio had finally come out from where she had been hiding behind a couple of cars. “…And that is our cue to leave,” Solstice replied. “Come on, newbie!” “I’m terribly sorry,” Hyacinth said with an apologetic smile, “but we can’t let you know who we are. It’s for your own safety.”

“…Um,” the newest Magi said. “She kinda’ already does. She was here when I… uh…” “She saw you transform?” Aubade asked urgently. Her voice had taken on the same sharp, icy tone, but there was a hint of worry as well. “Well, yeah.”

“…Well, there goes that plan,” Solstice replied. “It was only a question of when.” “Solstice,” Aubade said, frowning at the Orange Magi. “Not. Helping.” She sighed. “I guess it can’t be helped.”

Mio yelped. One moment, she had been standing with her feet firmly on the ground, and the next, she found herself up in the air; the blue Magi had picked her up, and had jumped up into the air. Realizing this, the girl let out a shriek, and instinctively gripped the fabric of Aubade’s jacket tighter.

“Hey!” the yellow Magi called after Aubade basically kidnapped her best friend. “Where do you-…” “She’s going to a nearby roof; it’s not safe to talk here,” Hyacinth smiled. “We should join them.” She jumped in the same direction that the Leader had gone. With a grin and salute, Solstice followed.

“Umm,” the yellow Magi asked. “It’s really easy,” Numina smiled. “I’m sure you noticed during your fight that depending on what you intended to do, you achieved higher speeds at times during the fight or similar?” When the yellow-clad Magi nodded, Numina continued. “It’s the same way with travelling around the way we do; simply intend to go in the same direction, or, say, reach that roof” – she pointed at one in the same direction as the others. “and jump in that general direction.”

Following the green Magi’s advice, the yellow one looked at the building, crouched down, and jumped – still not quite believing it to be that easy. It was that easy.

Which, of course, caused her to misjudge the jump, and she flew face first into the wall of the building, and fell down on the street below. Numina landed beside her. “I’m sorry,” she stated. “I’d completely forgotten how it was in the beginning when I had no idea of how the powers worked. I was really clumsy then too.” “I’m not clumsy,” the yellow Magi grumbled, rising up. “Why aren’t these abilities consistent? It doesn’t follow any gravity!” “Trust me,” Numina smiled. “Physics doesn’t apply to us when we are transformed in the same way as they do normally. For an easy example; Aubade creates walls where there isn’t enough density for a wall to appear. I control winds. There’s really no bit of science that explains that. Maybe in the future, but not currently, I’m sorry.”

“..This doesn’t make any sort of sense whatsoever.” “I know,” Numina replied. “Sorry.” “…Why are you apologizing?” the newer of the two spoke. “You’ve not done anything wrong..?” “Oh, it’s a habit,” Numina replied. “I’m sorry.” The other Magi looked at her with a puzzled look, before shaking her head.

“You said just focus on where I want to jump and jump?” “Essentially,” Numina replied. “Yes. Do you want me to guide you the first few times?” “No!” the yellow Magi’s replied before Numina was fully able to form the last word. “No. I don’t need your help.” Numina smiled. “Sorry.”

The yellow Magi looked up, and jumped. Numina followed. This time, the newbie actually made it onto the roof, and managed to land. “Great!” Numina replied, receiving a look that conveyed just how much the other did not agree with her. “Where to?” At the other’s question, Numina pointed. The two made their way in that direction.

Mitsu arrived in the plaza just in time to see the two successfully make it onto the roof, and then disappear. “Wai-… No…” she whimpered. “Come back! I just got here! I didn’t even get to see the fight!”

“…Shouldn’t they be here by now?” Solstice asked. “Numina can handle herself,” Aubade replied. “It shouldn’t be too long.” “We-…” Hyacinth was about to say something, when a yellow form landed in the middle of the four, and because of momentum, fell over. Numina landed shortly after.

Solstice received another swift punch from the redhead of the group when she started shaking, giggling at the sight of the rather ungraceful landing. “Ow!” the orange one exclaimed. “Stop doing that!” “Nope,” Hyacinth replied. “Not until you stop being a jerk.” “Aubade’s the jerk!” Solstice replied. “At least according to Mitsu!” she added the second part without really thinking.

“…You know Mitsu?” Mio asked. “Mashiro Mitsu? As in Magical Girl maniac Mitsu?” came from the yellow Magi who now had turned around and now sat on the floor. “…Oops. Sorry, Aubade.” The leader merely sighed. “Yes, we know her. Guys, you may as well turn back; they’re going to find out either way.” The other three (experienced) Magi nodded, and were each enveloped in their signature colour for a second.

A shocked gasp was heard from Mio at the identity of the four Magi. “… … … Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” The yellow Magi stated. “Mitsu is going to be so flipping mad. Just my luck, isn’t it?”

Trivia

 * This episode marks the debut of Anna as her Magi self.
 * This episode is the first episode where an "incomplete" finisher is used.
 * The reason the episode starts out with a fight, is because the writers needed to fit the Aubade-Saves-Mitsu moment into the episode.